Archive for Rubby De La Rosa

One of the useful things about Ottoneu is its integration with the Fangraphs leaderboards.  I’m on the leaderboards here constantly as is, so the ability to use them, while having data specific to a fantasy league is an added bonus of the format. One of the filter’s I find myself using often on the leaderboards is the “Last 14 Day” filter. This is admittedly a smaller sample than anyone should use to make significant decisions, but I like to use this filter to help isolate players – especially pitchers – who have had recent hot streaks.  Ottoneu uses large 40 man rosters, so often I will use the last few roster spots to preemptively buy some of these early hot streaks. Especially if you’re a first place team – or a team near the top of the standings – you are will lose any tie-breaks on free-agent auctions so being the first team to buy into a player (or auction a player) can be key to keeping reinforcements on your bench in the event of an injury.  Today, we’ll look at several pitchers who are near the top of the current “Last 14 Day” leaderboard and look at a couple lessons we can learn from this group.

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Rubby de la Rosa twirled a gem Monday night.* It was a night of several unlucky fantasy pitching performances: Corey Kluber, Chris Sale, Matt Harvey and John Lackey together struck out 34 batters and allowed only three runs in a combined 32 innings pitched, and the Twitterverse made sure everyone knew.

Yet there was de la Rosa, plugging away against the Marlins (and against Dan Haren, who admirably tossed eight innings of two-run ball in defense), needing only 94 pitches to get through a full nine innings of play. Rubby, too, settled for a no-decision, his due to a poorly timed two-run homer allowed to J.T. Realmuto in the 7th inning.

I was reluctant to invest in Rubby at first, remembering his wholly disappointing 2014 season. (In his defense, he was never really a touted, let alone highly touted, prospect, even within the Dodgers and Red Sox systems, so the term “disappointment” is used loosely here.) However, I have bought several shares of Rubby in the past couple of weeks due in large part to a smattering of injuries but also a series of respectable performances by de la Rosa.

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Middle infield is a position that gamers often have to hold their nose while filling. An increase in playing time for a rookie in Pittsburgh could add a semi-intriguing name to the middle infield waste land. A pair of vastly different outfielders have something to offer gamers in larger leagues. Finally, gamers looking for a possible breakout at starting pitcher who should, at worst, contribute positively in strikeouts could find this mystery man in the desert and on your waiver wire. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s time for our Depth Chart Discussions to begin. In an effort to suss out every team, we’ve divided them into four parts (infield, outfield, bullpen, and rotation) and will begin breaking them down for you over the next few weeks. You can find them gathered here.

The 2014 Arizona Diamondbacks rotation was….not good. As a staff they had the fifth lowest WAR total in the league and the fourth worst ERA. The staff’s xFIP was three quarters of a run lower than their ERA meaning they were slightly above average in that respect. But the main reason for that was the enormous ERA-xFIP gaps for Brandon McCarthy and Wade Miley, both of whom will play for different teams this year. There are still a couple of guys on the staff who may be in line for some positive regression, and there’s a whiff of upside from a couple of guys. But not one of the five starters projected by Steamer to pitch the most innings for Arizona has a FIP projection of 4.00 or lower. Read the rest of this entry »

As the Dodgers suffered through their incredibly painful first half of 2011, besieged mostly by injuries and the ongoing saga of “will Frank McCourt make payroll this week?”, one of the fun diversions for Dodger fans was watching the progress of flamethrowing young righty Rubby de la Rosa. At 22, the organization’s 2010 Minor League Pitcher of the Year had added an improving slider to his overpowering fastball in eight starts for Double-A Chattanooga, striking out 52 in just 40 innings.

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Everyone is happy when one of their pitchers is scheduled for two starts in a week. But that is not always a good thing. Here are five pitchers you may be on the fence about (or should be on the fence) putting into your lineup for Week 17.

Rubby De La Rosa – Thought to be a potential closer earlier in the year, De La Rosa has instead found a home in the rotation for the Dodgers. A couple of rough outings have inflated his ERA while a couple of hard-luck losses leave his record at under .500 for the season. But in his last four games, De La Rosa has a 2.16 ERA with 7 BB and 22 Ks in 25 IP. Earlier in the year, walks were a big problem for him and he still holds a 4.09 BB/9. Even with that walk rate, De La Rosa’s FIP and xFIP are both below his ERA. He has two home starts this week. There’s a chance he’s still on the waiver wire in your league and if so he makes an excellent streaming option.

Freddy Garcia – After pitching on the road in five of his last six games, Garcia gets to make two home starts this week. The veteran has done quite well on the road this year and has been victimized somewhat by the gopher ball in new Yankee Stadium. Garcia squares off this week against SEA and BAL. The Mariners are one of the worst HR hitting teams in baseball, while the Orioles are middle of the pack, but hit one-third fewer HR on the road than they do in Camden Yards. They are have two of the worst records in the AL. Make sure Garcia is active this week.

Jeff Karstens – An 86.6 LOB% has helped Karstens to a shiny 2.28 ERA and eight wins. In the previous three years, Karstens was very consistent with his xFIP, posting rates of 4.77, 4.88 and 4.82 in that span. This year’s rate checks in at 4.40 – an improvement, perhaps, but still nowhere near his actual ERA. Karstens has kept runners off base and his 1.04 WHIP is the ninth-best mark in baseball. But he struggles with the long ball (1.33 HR/9) and has a poor 4.79 K/9. This week he has road starts against ATL and PHI, two of the top teams in the league and teams that are above average in hitting HRs in their own park. Give him the week off if you can.

Chris Narveson – Miller Park is a good hitter’s park but Narveson has performed much better this year at home (5-2, 3.81 ERA) than on the road (1-4, 4.97). Narveson allows fewer baserunners at home and has a better SO/BB ratio at Miller Park, but his main reason for success is that he’s only allowed 2 HR in 52 IP in his home park. This week he gets CHI and HOU, the two worst teams in the NL. Get Narveson in your lineup for these matchups.

Carl Pavano – In the first two months of the season, Pavano had HR/FB rates below seven. In June that number jumped to 8.8 percent and this month it sits at 12.5, as he’s allowed a HR in six consecutive starts. His first start this week is at TEX and the Rangers are second in the AL with 122 HR, with a league-leading 81 at home. Pavano gets a break with his second start at OAK, as the A’s are last in the AL with 26 HR at home. But Pavano has hardly been a road warrior this year, with a 5.07 ERA away from Target Field. Give Pavano a place on your bench this week if you have other options.

Other scheduled two-start pitchers in Week 17 are listed below. Please remember that these are projected pitchers and changes can and will happen between now and next week.

Verlander, Sabathia, Weaver, Lee, Lincecum, Haren, Wilson, Hudson, Cueto, Hellickson, Morrow, Nolasco, Zimmermann, Worley, Holland, Dempster, Niese, Harang, Vargas, Lester, Leake, Myers, McDonald, McClellan, Dickey, Arrieta, Blackburn, Miller, Carmona, McCarthy, Saunders, Nicasio, Westbrook, Moscoso, Moseley, Happ, Davies

Check back Sunday night for an update of two-start pitchers.

Week 15 was the All-Star break, so no update on previous picks.